The Structure of Social Networks and Its Link to Higher Education Students’ Socio-Emotional Loneliness During COVID-19

Lonely students typically underperform academically. According to several studies, the COVID-19 pandemic is an important risk factor for increases in loneliness, as the contact restrictions and the switch to mainly online classes potentially burden the students. The previously familiar academic environment (campus), as well as the exchange with peers and lecturers on site, were no longer made available. In our cross-sectional study, we examine factors that could potentially counteract the development of higher education student loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic from a social network perspective. During the semester, N = 283 students from across all institutional faculties of a German comprehensive university took part in an online survey. We surveyed their social and emotional experiences of loneliness, their self-reported digital information-sharing behavior, and their current egocentric networks. Here, we distinguished between close online contacts (i.e., mainly online exchanges) and close offline contacts (i.e., mainly in-person face-to-face exchanges). In addition, we derived the interconnectedness (i.e., the densities of the egocentric networks) and heterogeneity (operationalized with the entropy) of students’ contacts. To obtain the latter, we used a novel two-step method combining t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) and cluster analysis. We explored the associations of the aforementioned predictors (i.e., information-sharing behavior, number of online and offline contacts, as well as interconnectedness and heterogeneity of the close contacts network) on social and emotional loneliness separately using two hierarchical multiple linear regression models. Our results suggest that social loneliness is strongly related to digital information-sharing behavior and the network structure of close contacts. In particular, high information-sharing behavior, high number of close contacts (whether offline or online), a highly interconnected network, and a homogeneous structure of close contacts were associated with low social loneliness. Emotional loneliness, on the other hand, was mainly related to network homogeneity, in the sense that students with homogeneous close contacts networks experienced low emotional loneliness. Overall, our study highlights the central role of students’ close social network on feelings of loneliness in the context of COVID-19 restrictions. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Children’s intergroup prosocial behavior: The role of group stereotypes

Children are prosocial from a young age onward but their prosocial actions are not necessarily egalitarian – especially with regard to others’ group membership. From around four years of age children tend to help and share more with in-group members compared to out-group members. However, a growing body of findings also suggest that sometimes children act more prosocially toward out-group members. How can we reconcile such seemingly contradicting behaviors? In this chapter, I describe how the salience of group stereotypes might shed light on these inconsistent findings. Specifically, different helping contexts can activate different group stereotypes. These different stereotypes could lead children to sometimes act more prosocially toward in-group peers, but sometimes show out-group bias in their helping or sharing behavior. For example, contexts that involve reciprocity could increase salience of a stereotype that out-groups are less trustworthy and thus children might be less inclined to share their resources with the out-group (i.e., in-group bias). Whereas an academic helping context might make a stereotype salient that entails out-groups are less competent and thus needing more help (i.e., out-group bias). Taking into account group stereotypes in children’s prosocial behavior will provide us with a deeper understanding of the underlying motivations that lead to selective prosociality in children. In the long run, such insights can contribute to combating discrimination and prejudice early in life.

The relationship between needs, motivations and information sharing behaviors on social media: focus on the self-connection and social connection

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the information sharing behavior of individuals on social media. Furthermore, the study analyzes the effect that individuals’ self-connection to social media has on information sharing through self-efficacy and the effect of social-connection on information sharing through empathy.Design/methodology/approachA survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to social media users from general participants in the Republic of Korea. A total of 824 valid responses were obtained. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and applying SmartPLS 3.0.FindingsThe result indicated that individuals are motivated to share information through self-connection and social connection. Furthermore, the mediation analysis revealed that the effect of self-connection on information sharing in social media is mediated by self-efficacy. Also, social connection will increase information sharing not only directly but also indirectly through its positive effect on empathy.Originality/valueThe authors focused on the basic needs of humans and tried to reveal the relationship between human needs and motivational beliefs, which are self-efficacy and empathy, and information sharing behavior on social media. Through the individual's fundamental needs that social media can satisfy, individuals will gain positive psychological benefits through using social media. This study considered what psychological benefits social media can provide.

Does workplace spirituality influence knowledge-sharing behavior and work engagement in work? Trust as a mediator

Management scholars view workplace spirituality as the main factor behind building trust among employees and playing a pivotal role in enhancing the organization's positive outcomes, i.e., knowledge sharing behavior & work engagement. Underpinning social exchange theory, we explored the linkage between workplace spirituality, knowledge sharing behavior, and work engagement. We further studied to look at the mediating effect of trust between workplace spirituality and positive outcomes. Data was collected from six private companies, the total number of respondents was (n=196). The study's analysis showed that workplace spirituality substantially positively impacts knowledge sharing behavior and work engagement. Furthermore, the link between workplace spirituality, knowledge sharing behavior, and work engagement is positively and statistically significantly mediated by trust. Thus, this work contributes significantly to the research paradigm by presenting workplace spirituality as a solution for high-rise trust among employees, fostering employee engagement in their work, and improving the capacity of knowledge-sharing behavior. Additionally, at the end of this study, theoretical and managerial suggestions, future avenues, and limitations are stated.

“They Care, We Share”- Perceived Fairness in Performance Appraisal Systems on Knowledge Sharing

The strategic importance of knowledge especially under dynamic business conditions makes it imperative to primarily understand the creation of the knowledge base. This paper employs mixed-method approach to understand the various triggers that motivate the knowledge sharing behavior of the IT employees working in Indian firms. Firstly, a qualitative study that comprised of thirteen in-depth interviews aimed to capture the participants’ understanding of, the context and the factors that trigger knowledge-sharing behavior. The fairness in performance appraisal, manager’s support, and career success were found to be the key triggers. Then, a quantitative study of 105 IT professionals examined the effect of the identified variables. Results suggested a positive relationship between perceived fairness in performance appraisal and knowledge-sharing behavior and the mediating role of career and hierarchical success between perceived fairness in performance appraisal system and knowledge-sharing behavior. The implications for both theory and practice have also been discussed in detail.

Tweet and Retweet Journalism During the Pandemic:

ABSTRACT – Starting from a gap identified in the literature regarding the use of social networks by newspapers to disseminate urgent news, this article aims to study strategies of journalistic content in social media, particularly in the context of a public crisis and to compare the effectiveness of different types of news disseminated in this medium, namely in terms of reach and generated interaction. The following research question was defined: how popular was public health news in Brazil during the covid-19 pandemic? Based on contributions in the literature, a quantitative study was carried out, using the content analysis technique. The study enable to better understand the sharing behavior of news in Twitter, the consumption behavior of newspaper readers on social networks and the generation of news during the pandemic. RESUMO – Partindo de uma lacuna identificada na literatura quanto ao uso das redes sociais pelos jornais para divulgação de notícias urgentes, este artigo tem como objetivo estudar estratégias no consumo de conteúdo jornalístico nas mídias sociais, particularmente durante uma crise mundial, e comparar a eficácia de diferentes modalidades de notícias divulgadas neste meio, nomeadamente ao nível do alcance e da interação gerada. Definiu-se a seguinte questão de pesquisa: qual a popularidade das notícias de saúde pública no Brasil durante a pandemia de covid-19? Com base nas contribuições da literatura, foi realizado um estudo quantitativo, utilizando a técnica de análise de conteúdo. O estudo possibilitou compreender melhor o comportamento de compartilhamento de notícias no Twitter, o comportamento de consumo dos leitores de jornais nas redes sociais e a geração de notícias durante a pandemia. RESUMEN – A partir de una brecha identificada en la literatura sobre el uso de las redes sociales por parte de los periódicos para difundir noticias urgentes, este artículo tiene como objetivo estudiar estrategias en el consumo de periodistas de noticias en las redes sociales, particularmente durante una crisis global y comparar la efectividad de diferentes modalidades de las noticias difundidas en este medio, es decir, en términos de alcance e interacción generada. Se definió la siguiente pregunta de investigación: ¿cuál es la popularidad de las noticias de salud pública en Brasil durante la pandemia de covid-19? Con base en aportes de la literatura, se realizó un estudio cuantitativo utilizando la técnica de análisis de contenido. El estudio permitió comprender mejor el comportamiento de compartir noticias en Twitter, el comportamiento de consumo de los lectores de periódicos en las redes sociales y la generación de noticias durante la pandemia.

Experimental study on load sharing characteristics of long-short CFG pile composite foundation adjacent to rigid retaining wall rotating about its base

Practicing geoengineers and researchers generally consider the load sharing behavior in multi-type pile composite foundation as an important design aspect. On the other hand, due to urbanization, such foundation system in cities will inevitably appear next to supported excavation. This paper discusses the result from relatively large-scale indoor experiment conducted to investigate the load sharing behavior of loaded long-short CFG pile composite foundation behind a neighboring rigid retaining wall undergoing rotation around the bottom. It was found that with progression of wall movement, the hidden load from soil displacement was borne by the piles with marked reduction in soil load sharing. At the end of wall rotation, the percentage of long piles’ head load increment needed to arrive at a new static equilibrium was about 12.57~32.22% while the end bearing increased by more than 97%. The consequences on the short piles, however, were manifested with an increasing pile head (13.42%) and toe (28.9%) load for the pile far from the wall whereas the closest one experienced a certain increment up to 15×10-4rad wall rotation and finally the head load and end bearing decreased to 8.28% and 12.63%, respectively. The 3D numerical back analysis conducted using FE software ABAQUS yielded the pile – soil stress ratio lower than the value obtained from the experiment but provided great insight into pile settlement characteristics during wall rotation.

Social reference cues can reduce misinformation sharing behaviour on social media

Misinformation on social media is a key challenge to effective and timely public health responses. Existing mitigation measures include flagging misinformation or providing links to correct information but have not yet targeted social processes. Here, we examine whether providing balanced social reference cues in addition to flagging misinformation leads to reductions in sharing behavior. In 3 field experiments (N=817, N=322, and N=278) on Twitter, we show that highlighting which content others within the personal network share and, more importantly, not share combined with misinformation flags significantly and meaningfully reduces the amount of misinformation shared (Study 1-3). We show that this reduction is driven by change in injunctive social norms (Study 2) but not social identity (Study 3). Social reference cues, combined with misinformation flags, are feasible and scalable means to effectively curb sharing misinformation on social media.